--- layout: post title: Open Source Announcement and Future Plans date: 2014-09-29 13:28:50.000000000 -04:00 type: post published: true status: publish categories: - Development Updates tags: [] meta: _edit_last: '4' slide_template: default truethemes_video_url: '' truethemes_external_image_url: '' truethemes_slider_shortcode: '' truethemes_slider_cu3er: '' author: login: evan email: eduffield82@gmail.com display_name: Evan Duffield first_name: Evan last_name: Duffield ---

Hello Everyone!

Today, September 29, 2014 Darksend was completely open sourced. This means that we’re no longer going to be using the “release candidate” labels and we’re considering Darksend to be stable enough to leave beta. Also, the development community can come together to improve and refine Darksend, build backends that utilize it and enhance the Masternode technology adding even more functionality.

We’ve been busy the last few weeks working on development plans for the next six to twelve months and we’re happy to announce these today.

Masternode Hardening

To build a network that can withstand attacks, the masternodes must not publish their IPs. To do this we’re going to utilize a new multipath communication technology. This will add another layer of privacy to the system as it will allow users to communicate with the network securely without exposing their IPs and will also hide the identity of the Darksend mixing nodes making it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for third parties to spy on users information.

It uses multi-path routing so users can send more than one encrypted message using different routes on the mesh network for redundancy. This will allow us quick communication, robustness and anonymous two way communication.

The diagram below shows the new system in action:

We’re currently building the foundation for instant transactions and other secret projects that we’re not ready to announce yet. We’ll see you on testnet soon!

The Dash Development Team